My Year of Buying Nothing

Lee Simpson may seem like an unlikely candidate to don the mantel of anti-consumerist prophet. She is, after all, the former publisher of Canada's most successful women's lifestyles magazine, Chatelaine. But that is just the first of many surprising things about her new book My Year of Buying Nothing.


In the 1980s and '90s, Simpson oversaw the heady days of women's magazine publishing. Although proud of the excellent journalism featured in her magazines, and of the pioneering work of the editors she worked with, her "primary role as senior executive was to ensure that a maximum number of advertising pages got sold."

"I was part of the data analysis and market research conglomerate that helped consumer predators know your weaknesses and exploit them mercilessly."

In My Year of Buying Nothing, Simpson invites readers into her world to witness first hand the struggles she faced, the decisions and compromises she had to make, and the epiphanies and wisdom she won during her year-long attempt to shed her "consumer" skin and live a more sustainable, more authentic, more earth-friendly life.

Who better to choose as a guide to a new, healthier post-consumer lifestyle than someone who is intimatel y familiar with the pitfalls and dangers of the starting place, and the challenges of the way forward.

Author: Lee Simpson
Publisher: Northstone Publishing
Published: 09/15/2015
Pages: 208
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.72lbs
Size: 9.07h x 6.02w x 0.55d
ISBN: 9781770648012

About the Author
Simpson, Lee: - "Lee Simpson was the first female publisher Chatelaine - Canada's most successful women's lifestyles magazine. As such, Lee worked contentedly as one of the primary voices in marketing to women for 20 years. Always a champion of change, she left the communications industry in 2000 to earn a Master of Divinity degree to match her MBA, and was subsequently ordained as a minister in The United Church of Canada. Lee lives with her husband and dogs in Nova Scotia, on three seaside acres. She works part-time in local congregations and as a freelance writer, and full-time helping others believe in the power of the individual to save our planet from ecological disaster through simple changes in behaviour. Her year of buying nothing was documented by The United Church Observer to help spread this message."